"When greedy real estate tycoon, Liu XUAN (Deng Chao), buys up a pristine coastal enclave known as Green Gulf, he plans to turn it into the hottest property on the market. But Green Gulf harbors a secret: it’s home to the last surviving mermaids, and they are done playing nice. Their plan: send the beautiful Shan (Lin Yun) to seduce Liu and stop the destruction of their beloved oceans. But when their plan goes belly-up, neither humans nor mermaids are willing to back down, and a final, fatal frenzy becomes inevitable." - (Alert)
When a real estate project threatens the livelihood of the residents who depend on the sea to make a living, Shan is sent to stop the real estate developer, but an accident causes her to disappear into the sea. - (Baker & Taylor)
Video Librarian Reviews
The highest-grossing Chinese film of all time, The Mermaid is a strange comic fantasy that mixes slapstick humor, corporate satire, and environmental messages. In this bizarre twist on The Little Mermaid, pretty but naïve mermaid Shan (Jelly Lin) is sent to assassinate flamboyant real-estate magnate Liu Xian (Deng Chao), who is killing all of the sea life in the waters around a beautiful island that he wants to turn into an upscale resort. Shan is a sweet, guileless girl who clomps around in a pair of rubber boots to hide her fins (even when clad in designer gowns), and Liu is a tasteless, womanizing egotist garbed in gauche fashions and a fake mustache. Of course they fall in love. Directed by Stephen Chow, whose wacky action comedies Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle were international smashes with successful U.S. releases, The Mermaid ping pongs between cartoonish slapstick comedy, crass sexual gags, and bizarre scenes of outlandish violence, including an octopus man who cooks his own tentacles while posing as a master sushi chef. The wild and abrupt tonal shifts may seem odd to American audiences and some of the verbal humor is surely lost in translation, but this funny, fast-moving comedy is stuffed with outrageous visual gags, big personalities, a goofy sense of humor, and an affection for its characters that all translate just fine. Recommended. (S. Axmaker) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2016.